Chapter 258: Chapter 211: The Stairway to Godhood
After finishing the memories left behind on the Bronze Halberd fragments, Du Chengfeng finally realized why it was possible to become so strong.
The entity attached to Li Family Village’s eldest son must be the ghostly priest of the Yin people, no wonder the battle was so difficult. It turns out that the opponent was a top-tier expert in life, and after turning into a ghostly god, he naturally became even stronger, almost omnipotent.
"Therefore, facing such an enemy..."
Du Chengfeng fell into contemplation.
To face such a non-human enemy, the best way is, naturally, not to be human either.
As for the method of not being human, the memory within that bronze fragment already revealed it. In the past, the Yin people found a middle ground amidst a situation with two extremes—they merely needed to orchestrate suitable rituals, and through these rituals make themselves "believe," thereby utilizing this steadfast will to continue growing stronger.
"But do I really need such a method?"
Du Chengfeng began to scratch his head.
Indeed, in the past, he might have been just like the Yin people, unable to find a suitable opponent or a direction for advancement—but now he already had direction. Killing that Yin priest was the most obvious direction. Under these circumstances, does he really need to design any rituals intentionally to become stronger?
"Maybe I do."
After pondering for a while, Du Chengfeng decided to give it a try.
After all, there’s a saying for everything: aim high to achieve mediocrity, aim for mediocrity to achieve low. If he merely aims to defeat the Yin priest, the final result might just be a draw between the two. If he merely aims for a draw, he might not even achieve that—after all, the Yin person is clearly not a fool; he won’t just sit idle and wait for him to come and kill him.
By the next encounter, that Yin priest might have transformed once again.
"So why does that Yin priest think I’m his kin?"
Du Chengfeng was puzzled; it was the one thing he couldn’t comprehend, even after seeing the memory on the bronze fragment.
Perhaps only the Yin priest knows the answer, or perhaps if he can defeat the Yin priest, he could force him to reveal the reason.
But the premise for everything is being able to defeat him.
"Strength... what I need is strength."
First of all, Du Chengfeng clarified his desire. It’s the most crucial step in the Yin people’s "ritual" —only knowing what he asks for can lead to the conception of a corresponding ritual, and the process of executing this ritual is also the process of obtaining this strength.
Therefore, to obtain power that matches the Yin priest, the ritual Du Chengfeng devised is...
"Kill all the people of the Southern Chen, then I will definitely win!"
Just as he finished speaking, Du Chengfeng slapped his forehead.
Indeed, if he could turn the entire Southern Chen population into Evil Qi, there might not even be a need for the power brought by the ritual—the sheer amount of Evil Qi could crush the Yin priest. But the problem is that this approach is somewhat extreme; it’s just to fight a Yin priest, is there really a need for such a grand scheme?
"Better change to another plan... Got it."
Du Chengfeng quickly thought of another idea.
"Swing the saber ten thousand times every day, comprehend the mystery of saber techniques, just as long as it takes ten years... No, this period is too long, doesn’t quite work."
Du Chengfeng began to scratch his head again, suddenly realizing the difficulty of this so-called ritual.
If he wants to make himself believe that "after completing this, one will gain strength," the rituals he designs tend to be challenging to complete—since completion only after difficulty imbues a sense of achievement, making him truly believe he gained strength. But the rituals themselves are indeed hard to achieve.
Conversely, if he wants to design simple rituals to cheat...
"As long as I drink this cup of water, I will become stronger!"
Du Chengfeng tried hard to convince himself of this while pouring himself a cup of water to drink.
As he predicted, nothing changed; at most, his throat wasn’t as dry.
Just drinking water to become stronger, something even he couldn’t believe, naturally couldn’t rally any steadfast will nor change reality—but those methods he believed in were too outrageous, either too extreme or spanning too long a time.
Thinking of it this way, he underestimated the Yin people’s ritual system; to design a suitable ritual based on actual circumstances is rich with nuance.
At least, relying solely on whimsical thoughts won’t suffice. It’s a quite rigorous system.
But the issue is, Du Chengfeng only saw fragments of memories, which is akin to having only seen pigs run, without ever tasting the pork.
In this matter, merely copying by the gourd shape won’t work.
"Fortunately, there’s another way."
Du Chengfeng recalled the memories he saw in the bronze fragment.
Indeed, the Yin priest hadn’t truly followed through the "ritual" path; having doubts about the efficacy of rituals himself greatly reduced their effectiveness—so he changed his approach and attempted to communicate with spirits.
And the way to communicate with spirits is by drinking.
Du Chengfeng could achieve this. Though it’s indeed hard to buy alcohol in such a small place like Li Family Village, fortunately, Yu Lao’er at least has some reserves. Of course, unlike the fine wine the Yin might use for worshiping gods, this is merely cheap wine—but Du Chengfeng realized the key to the method is actually "drunkenness," the type of wine isn’t that important.
As long as he can get drunk, the numbing effect of alcohol gradually makes one lose rationality, and once rationality fades, the ghost buried in his heart guides him.
"Hopefully, there’s a ghost in my heart, counting on you."
Thinking this way, Du Chengfeng took two bottles of cheap wine and started gulping them down.
The wine was cheap, yet quite strong, and cheap wine tends to intoxicate quickly. Du Chengfeng soon entered a groggy state.
But he didn’t feel the so-called heart’s ghost at all.
"Could it be that I haven’t drunk enough yet?"
Du Chengfeng frowned. Maybe that’s indeed the case; he didn’t know the Yin priest’s alcohol tolerance, but he knew his own—when it comes to this cheap wine, he needs at least three bottles to reach the state; two bottles definitely aren’t enough.
"Two more bottles."
Du Chengfeng stood up and went to get more wine.
"Two more bottles, two more bottles..."
